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To celebrate World Ocean Day (June 8, 2022) Seafood Industry Australia (SIA), the national peak-body representing Australia’s commercial seafood industry, has announced pre-eminent marine biologist and fisheries scientist, Professor Ray Hilborn as a keynote speaker for their leading biennial conference, Seafood Directions, tol be held in Brisbane in September. 

“It is with great pleasure we announce Professor Ray Hilborn as a keynote speaker for the Seafood Directions Conference 2022, which will be held at the Sofitel Brisbane from September 13-15, under the theme ‘One Voice, One Future’,” SIA CEO Veronica Papacosta said. 

“Ray is a world-leading Professor at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, specialising in natural resource management and conservation, who will present a talk titled, ‘How to sustain food from the seas while protecting marine ecosystems’.”

“I am excited to be able to travel again and reconnect with Australian colleagues at the Seafood Directions conference,” Professor Hilborn said. 

“The [global] seafood industry faces unprecedented challenges in access to the ocean, but also some exciting opportunities and needs to be prepared to face these challenges in a unified way.

“The conference theme, ‘One Voice, One Future’, is spot on for where researchers and commercial seafood producers, both capture and aquaculture need to be as they move forward. 

“Seafood is the best way to produce food while protecting natural ecosystems and this message needs to be made clear to national and international policy makers.”

“The Seafood Directions conference will provide a forum for industry leaders and innovators across aquaculture, wild-catch and post-harvest to join together with scientists, fisheries managers and broader stakeholders to discuss and plan for the future of seafood, showcase best-practice solutions, tech innovations, share knowledge and workshop solutions to tricky, important problems,” Ms Papacosta said. 

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For more information on the Seafood Directions Conference visit www.seafooddirections.com.au. 

Early-bird ticket sales for the 2022 event close on Friday, June 24. Tickets available at www.seafooddirections.com.au/tickets/ 

RAY HILBORN – BIOGRAPHY

Ray Hilborn is a Professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington specialising in natural resource management and conservation. He authored several books including “Ocean Recovery: a sustainable future for global fisheries? (with Ulrike Hilborn) in 2019 , “Overfishing: what everyone needs to know” (with Ulrike Hilborn) in 2012, “Quantitative fisheries stock assessment” with Carl Walters in 1992, and “The Ecological Detective: confronting models with data” with Marc Mangel, in 1997 and has published over 300 peer reviewed articles. He has received the Volvo Environmental Prize, the American Fisheries Societies Award of Excellence, The Ecological Society of America’s Sustainability Science Award, and the International Fisheries Science Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Washington State Academy of Sciences, and the American Fisheries Society. 

ABOUT SEAFOOD DIRECTIONS

Seafood Directions was established in 1999 as a Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) initiative to provide an industry forum for the exchange of ideas. FRDC remains a key funding partner and support agency for Seafood Directions 2022, 2024 and 2026 which will be hosted by Seafood Industry Australia.

The 2022 Seafood Directions Conference is supported by the Queensland Government through Tourism and Events Queensland and features on the It’s Live! in Queensland events calendar; and with support from the Brisbane Economic Development Agency.

For information on conference sponsorship or ticketing please contact SIA Business and Events Manager Rosie Love on:  M: 0403 615 038e: [email protected]

For more information or to organise an interview with SIA CEO Veronica Papacosta

please contact SIA communications and public affairs manager Jessica McInerney

E: [email protected] M: 0420 695 431